Pool Buddies

On July 4th, Doug, Tina and James came for a visit. The kids played in the pool and we ate way too much food! It was a good way to celebrate!

Happy 2nd Anniversary to Us!

June 27, 2005

Guangzhou Civil Affairs Office, China

16lbs. 27inches

June 27, 2006

Burger Place at the Riverside Plaza

22lbs, 32 inches

June 27, 2007

Caboose of the Casey Jr., Disneyland

26lbs., 36inches

As you can see from the picture, we celebrated our 2nd Gotcha Day by going to Disneyland last night. Tenley was finally tall enough to go on a roller coaster (Gadget’s Go Coaster) and she pronounced it “cool”. She is still 4 inches away from her heart’s desire- Space Mountain…but I think she’ll make it next year.

WOW. 2 years. I’m really shocked at how fast that time has gone, and yet it still feels like she’s always been here. There’s a group from our agency in China right now that just got their kids, and I can still remember all the feelings and craziness of that brief time… and it just amazes me at how much has happened since then.

The Year 2 Recap: Well. Tenley has embraced the Terrible Two’s wholeheartedly. She actually started with the tantrums around 18 months ( and they continue) and has added whining and hitting herself to her arsenal. Mom & Dad have countered with the time-out. Time-outs work really well for Tenley because she hates to have to sit still, and like the evil parents we are, her 5 minutes doesn’t begin until the screaming & crying stops.

This kid never shuts up. Yap yap yap…all the time and about everything. She’s also begun that hilarious stage where they start making up little stories and singing little songs to themselves. You can also hold a semi-decent conversation with her, and frequently get her dispense information you might be seeking like what she wants to eat, or where she wants to go, or what she did. You have to keep up with what she’s watching on TV, because conversations frequently make refrence to something in one of her shows, and if you’re lucky she’ll announce to you first “I’m Little Bear” or “I’m Tasha- I a volcano sister”. She loves to talk on the phone- we are in SO much trouble as soon as she’s old enough to have a cell ( I see pre-paid minutes in her future). This language ability does come with a downside. Frequent responses to facts given to her are “no it’s not”. She knows she has to say “excuse me” to interrupt a conversation, and it really bothers her if you’re driving and talking to each other, so you hear “excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!” and when you respond you get “hi”. She also still parrots everything, so you have to be very careful because you get everything – including “Dammit!” (used correctly I might add) or “I want to go the park -right now!”

Still loves music, still loves to dance. She sits and “plays” piano with Daddy everyday. She saw about 30 seconds of ballet on a PBS ad and has been obsessed with it. As luck would have it, the ballet studio in town has a class for 2-3 year olds…she starts in August.

She grows like a weed. At least it feels that way. She’s gained 4 lbs and grown 4 inches this year- all straight up. She’s really looong but still fits an 18 month waist. She continues to eat just about anything and is getting better with a fork everyday. The only good thing I can say here is that her feet seem to have slowed down- which is good because for awhile I couldn’t keep her in shoes.

She has gone totally girly. Wants to wear nothing but dresses (sometimes with cowboy boots). She loves to get her hair cut, but insists on keeping it short. She likes getting her toes painted, but still likes to pick the polish off. Daddy is still her best guy, and she often tells me "I married to Daddy". She has announced that she wants a big girl bed & Tinkerbell sheets.

We have begun potty training, but it’s going to be a long uphill battle I think. Tenley will tell you she needs to use the potty about every 4th time she goes. This is not so good for Pull-ups which aren’t meant to handle that volume of liquid. I think I’m just going to let her run naked now & see if she can figure it out!

So amazed at how fast she's growing up. I still remember that first picture & how she fit in my arms, now she struggles to fit in my lap when we read stories at night before bed. By next year, we'll have to lay on the bed together...I hope that doesen't come too soon.

Drama Queen

Yesterday was such a busy day that Tenley did not have a nap. I struggled to keep her awake until 8pm or so and finally let her crash at 9pm. She slept all night but is clearly very, very tired still today. She has been whiny all day and every little thing sets her off into a crying fit. The best example of this came when she opened the front door of our old apartment onto her toes. She cut one of them slightly and understandably there were many tears. She cried and whimpered about it all the way home until Mommy could fix it up with some Neosporin and a band-aid.

After the patch job on her toe was over she was still laying on the couch whimpering. Then while I was putting her nap clothes on her she said, while still crying, “I wish I could walk again.” While I was still laughing at that she got up and started limping around like she just had a toe or two amputated. This caused me to laugh harder and her to cry more while hopping on one foot and refusing to put her injured foot down.

This is why even though she protests, Tenley takes a nap every day. Miss a day and you get a world class drama queen!

Parents of the Year

Today when driving home Tenley stated that she was hungry. So we asked her where she wanted to eat. “How about we go to Del Taco” she said stoically. As Michelle and I were laughing hysterically she decided to state another choice. “How about Red Robin?” That made us laugh even harder. Her final choice was Mimi’s. At this we decided that our work was done as parents. We had taught her that she had choices when it came to eating out. So basically in the two years that Tenley has been with us we have taught her to be a slob, be 30 mins late to every event and to eat out at every chance. Our work is done and our parent of the year award should be arriving any day now!

Fall Fun in June??

After washing Mommy's car tonight I decided to rake a few leaves just to see what was leaf and what was dead or dying lawn. I had a nice pile of leaves and went to get the garbage can. When I came back, this is what I saw. She was having all kinds of fun!

Needless to say, I had to rake the entire pile again and try to get them in the garbage can before the leaf princess had her way with them again.

Bikini Car Wash

This afternoon Tenley put on her best bikini and helped me wash my car. She was very helpful but a little sheepish when it came to the water.

When it was all done, I put the sprinkler on the hose and she ran through the water giggling all the way.

New Tenley-isms

The words of the day are “in my butt.” I might have posted this sometime in the past but it has come around again with no encouragement from us so I thought I would post it again. Tenley had a nice rumble from below the other day and when I asked her what it was she casually replied, “the people in my butt.” Once again, I am not sure where she learned this as we don’t say this but it is too funny. We try not to laugh and make a big deal about it but these days everything has to do with her butt.

Other Tenley-isms these days include “Sometime today people” when traffic is not moving fast enough for her, “I go to Disneyland and ride Space Mountain?” and the ever popular “I do it myself!” stated with enough emphasis to actually make you believe that she can do whatever she wants.

The above picture was taken this weekend when we bought her this Barbie dress that she could not live without. Now she won’t take it off. She prances around saying she is doing ballet and then out of the blue will grab my hand and say, “now we are married.” I try to explain to her that I am not Woody Allen and that I am already married to mommy but she won’t accept that answer.

She is opinionated, stubborn, willful, defiant, messy and downright mean sometimes. In other words, she is a typical two-year old who is cruising into three. She is also loving, gentle, too cute for words and loaded with personality.

Bill Murray said it best in Lost in Translation…”Your life, as you know it... is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk... and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life.”

New Pictures

Here are a few cute pictures of Tenley while she was visiting Grandma and Grandpa this month.

Cowgirl Tenley

Tenley went to visit Grandma and Grandpa for two weeks earlier this month and they turned her into a little cowgirl. A new hat and new boots in the top picture were her favourite things from this visit. She keeps saying they are just like Grandpa's. The horse in the bottom picture is an evil toy that winnies and clip clop when you press the ear. The problem is that you don't have to press the ear. It just goes off whenever it wants. That's why it lives at Grandma's house now!

Mother Nature's Magic Trick

A week ago I had to go to a tile store 2 hours away in Pasadena. I felt it was unfair to ask my little 2 year old to ride all the way out there, sit semi-patiently while I picked tile, and then sit in the car for 2 hours all the way home. So I traded for time at the Kidspace Children’s Museum. www.kidspacemuseum.org

Ten had a great time climbing the raindrop tower, and was transfixed by the beehive. Since it was a nice day, we headed out to the Wisteria Courtyard to play in the water toys next to the trike track. Within 5 minutes she was completely soaked and having a grand time. The only thing that distracted her was when one of the Kidspace workers brought out Millivanilli the millipede to meet the kids. She watched the whole presentation and then could hardly contain her excitement at getting to touch it.

Tenley has been obsessed with bugs lately. Rolly polys, ants, crickets, grasshoppers, butterflies- you name it. She wants to pick them up, examine them, talk to them, show them to me, etc. So given my kids latest obsession and my fond memories of raising silk worms when I was in kindergarten, I plunked down $8 to adopt 2 caterpillars during Kidspace’s Caterpillar Adoption Days.

Our new friends were scarcely an inch long and about as big around as a red 7-11 coffee stirrer. They came to us in tiny soufflé cups filled halfway with a food that looked like someone had pureed peanut butter and vegemite. They crawled around and ate and Tenley sat there and watched it all.

We read The Hungry Caterpillar, and apparently they were, because when we woke up on Thursday morning they had tripled in size and barely fit in their soufflé cups.

On Friday they “assumed the position” and moved to the lid of the soufflé cup and began hanging upside down.

By Saturday morning they had completely wrapped themselves up as a chrysalis, and Tenley wanted to know why she couldn’t see her caterpillars anymore. We read The Hungry Caterpillar again.

On Tuesday, Tenley and Daddy built a “butterfly bungalow” according to the directions we received. Tenley colored the shoebox in shades of green and found a branch and leaves for her little friends. Daddy affixed the soufflé cup lids to the top of the box and enclosed the front with screen so we could watch the proceedings.
On Friday I woke up and went to open the blinds in the kitchen and noticed that the box was missing from it’s location on the counter. It wasn’t on the floor. I searched the house in a panic wondering why the cats would have bothered the poor cocoons. I found Hobie sitting on it in front of the stove. I carefully turned it over and noticed that both chrysalis were still attatched…but one looked funny….and there behind the leaf was butterfly #1.


My vicious killers, LaFred & Beeps, must have heard the cracking and flapping of wings and gone on the hunt. We relocated the box to the safety of Tenley’s dresser. Good thing too, because butterfly #2 appeared on Saturday morning.

On Monday afternoon, we took our pretty Painted Ladies outside to let them go. We peeled back the screen and one of them took flight immediately. The other one was a little more reluctant to leave and instead decided to hang out on Tenley’s hand for a while. Eventually, she took flight too, and Tenley ran after her yelling “Bye butterfly! Nice time! I miss you!!”